Need some comic relief after a brutal week of rejections. What's the funniest/most absurd rejection you've gotten from an investor, customer, or potential hire?
I'll start: Had a VC tell me my idea was "too niche" and then two months later invested in a startup that does the EXACT SAME THING.
"We love everything about this, the team is great, the market is huge, but we're going to pass." No explanation. Still haunts me.
An investor once told me "the timing isn't right" and then asked me to intro him to my competitor. I actually did it because I wanted to watch the chaos unfold (they didn't invest in them either lol)
Got rejected by YC with "We don't believe people will pay for this." We were already at $50K MRR with paying customers. Guess our customers didn't get the memo.
Enterprise prospect: "This is exactly what we need. We're definitely buying this." Three months later: "We've decided to build it in-house." Six months after that: "Hey, are you still selling that tool?"
Had an angel tell me he loved the product but couldn't invest because "my wife also has a startup and she'd kill me." Weirdly one of the most honest rejections I've ever gotten.
"We really like this but we just invested in something similar." Cool, except their "similar" investment was a completely different industry. I think they just didn't want to say no.
Not a founder but I once got rejected by a client who said my hourly rate was too low and it made them question my expertise. Raised my rates 40%, same client hired me a month later. Psychology is wild.
these are incredible. I feel better already. might frame the "too niche" email as motivation
My favorite: "We're impressed by your traction but concerned about your ability to scale." We were literally doubling every month. What did they want, tripling?
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